Mt. Juliet couple gets dozens of bed bug bites at local movie theater

By Marissa Sulek

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    NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WSMV) — A Mount Juliet man said he went to the movies with his wife at a local theater.

The next morning, they woke up with dozens of bed bug bites, now Michal Steplowski said Regal Cinemas refused to cover their losses.

It was Monday night back in May, when Steplowski and his wife went to see Guardians of the Galaxy at Regal Cinemas Providence 14 theater in Mount Juliet. It’s a place he said he and his wife don’t plan to walk inside again.

“I love movies, I love watching movies, just now it happens from the safety of my home I guess,” said Steplowski.

That’s because the next morning he said he woke up with 42 bed bug bites on his legs, his wife had 18 on her back. Steplowski said some got infected, so he had to see a doctor.

“This was traumatic enough that I don’t think we will ever go to the movies,” he said.

After the incident, Steplowski said he reached out to the theater, but they ignored his calls for three days. So, he came back to the theater himself.

“The manager on duty let me in,” said Steplowski. “We both walked back, we looked at the seats we were sitting in and underneath the seat I was sitting in was an egg sack from the bed bug.”

He said he took a picture and sent it to the exterminator cleaning his home who confirmed it was an egg sack. Steplowski said he texted the manager at the theater who messaged him back saying they closed the theater until further notice. He later found out a pest control company came to clean the theater later that week.

Since then, Steplowski kept every document and said he spent over $2,000 on medical bills and extermination.

“We got some losses where it came to, I wasn’t able to work for a couple of days,” Steplowski said. “It cost a lot of money to get your house treated for bed bugs, and we were referred to their insurance provider to file a claim and we were kind of shut down.”

In that letter, the insurance company for Regal Cinemas said they were not legally responsible for what happened and denied the claim.

Now, Steplowski said he doesn’t know what else to do.

“You feel kind of powerless and frustrated,” he said.

WSMV4 reached out to Regal Cinemas who emailed back this statement:

“The safety of our guests and staff are always of the utmost importance to us and once we were notified, immediate steps were taken to investigate this allegation. We engaged the services of professional pest control providers on multiple occasions and can report no bed bugs were reported.

We want all of our guests to feel confident that they will be safe when they attend a movie at our Mount Juliet theatre and in furtherance of that objective, we continue to engage professionals to conduct routine inspections at this facility.”

Richard M. Grover, Head of Marketing, Regal Cinemas

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